In the New City, nothing is too big or too small for municipal councillors to focus on, from half-billion-dollar sports arenas to plastic-bag bans and schemes aimed at preparing for extreme climate change.

A columnist today in the National Post was playing devil's advocate to the idea that cities should think big in planning and building for the future, calling this "utopian visions," implying that such a perspective takes away from the real work of cities, i.e. filling potholes. I think most cities in Canada actually do an excellent job of providing municipal services, and even maintaining their existing infrastructure given their limited tax bases, and the proclivity of provinces recently to download large assets to local government. But planning for the future, one where social, economic and environmental conditions are likely to be different from today, is also a key part of the mandate of cities. Building infrastructure is an essential part of this. The majority of public infrastructure in Canada is owned by municipal governments, and because it has suffered from decades of under-investment, it is increasingly an infrastructure built to suit a different era. Imagining a future-oriented infrastructure is an essential task for Canada's large cities, and I believe most citizens, confronted with the day to day challenges of affordable transportation, housing, recreation, and other issues, are on board with the idea that we need to aspire for something better than the status quo.

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Hi! My name is Tom Broen and I've started this site to further my interest and begin a conversation on the subject of public infrastructure as a social catalyst. Please check out any of the resources on here and feel free to join the discussion.